Race 03: TM Lights Round of Carbondale

Bobby Dollar took the pole with Sakura Motoko on his outside. Dollar shot away into the distance while Motoko battled side by side with Nathan Ferguson for several laps. Ferguson eventually got past, but Dollar had a 4 second lead by the time Ferguson cleared Motoko's car. Not too much happened through the rest of the field until the first yellow on lap 14/15.

Daxter Hamlett made a habit of not giving Archer Harris or James Davison enough room coming off of the final corner. Hamlett moved over on Harris, which sent Harris into Davison, and both of them into the inside wall.

Under this yellow, John Jefferson hammered the back of Bernhard Strauss and stacked up pretty much the entire field. As a result, on the restart there were only about 14 cars on the lead lap...

... and, of course, Jefferson to the Steward's Office...

Everyone pitted, and Justin Robinson found himself in the lead of the race but restarting about 15th in line due to so many cars being at the tail of the lead lap. Ferguson rocketed around Robinson and didn't really look back...

The field got single file at this point. Nothing happened. NOTHING. Cameron Taylor blew up, but that was about it...

Well, until Dermid Scott decided that he was getting bored and made a few passes and try and run the leader down. Thomas Kade thought that was a good idea and decided to make it better by trying three wide on the back straight. Usually, that works if you're paying attention. Kade, though, wasn't, and proceeded to go in between Scott and Justin Robinson. Robinson got punted into the wall, and Scott was sent careening into the grass and back up in front of...

... okay, anyone that was more than one lap down was involved in the wreck that Kade caused except for John Jefferson.

The restart was similar to the previous run, with very little passing until Daxter Hamlett was turned by James Davison to bring out the final yellow with 15 to go. Revenge is fun.

Ferguson was chased by Alli Culotta, but the Lynxe Women's Team driver wasn't able to close the gap enough to prevent Ferguson from winning two in a row.

Now let's hope the TM Master Cup Series race isn't a snoozer.

Results
Points

Spoiler:

OOC: I believe spoiler tags aren't necessary after the 3rd or 4th post. I remember Cooper saying something about that awhile back. Correct me if I'm wrong

Delgado Rips Jefferson's Performance, Threatens Change if Entire Team Doesn't Shape Up

On top of his driver's pit box at Carbondale, Tom Delgado was left slamming his headset down in disgust after John Jefferson rammed into Bernhard Strauss and earned himself a trip to the Steward's Office. Jefferson would finish 32nd thanks to that moment of stupidity.

"It's hard to fathom that you make such a silly mistake like that" Delgado said of the incident. "John's got a lot to learn about racing at this high a level, because he has not impressed me one bit so far. This entire team needs to get their act together if I'm going to continue investing money in them" Delgado added, citing that he is losing money from the poor performances.

"The sponsors aren't happy with us, I'm not happy with this team. Nobody is in a festive mood around here right now, and I expect the performance to pick up significantly. I have no intention of defending my driver's actions in the Steward's Office, because he never gave me an explanation for what he did" Delgado continued, switching topics back to the incident between Jefferson and Strauss before ripping into his team once again. "I have a bunch of idiots on this team, and it's already becoming clear to me that we hired the wrong personnel. These guys better get real smart, real fast if they want to save their jobs" Delgado ranted before walking off, but not before taking his already damaged headset and throwing it on the ground in disgust, shattering it into pieces and leaving one of the crew members to clean up his rage-filled mess.

Destroyed Headset Count: 1

Jefferson Sorry For Incident With Strauss, Unsure of What Happened

John Jefferson was left scratching his head after a disappointing 32nd place finish at Carbondale. The main talking point was his incident with Bernhard Strauss which earned him a trip to the Steward's Office, and a scathing criticism of his performance by his boss. Jefferson was apologetic afterwards, but could not pinpoint exactly what happened.

"First off I want to apologize profusely to Bernhard for the incident between him and I. It's all on me and honestly, I have no idea what happened. It could have been stupidity on my part, it could have been a brief technical glitch in the car, I truly have no idea. All I know is that there's a lot of angry people at me and I don't blame them one bit. We have to improve as a team, I have to improve as a driver, but I wish my boss would be a little more patient. Wins and top 5's don't come instantly, these things take work. I'm sure it's just the frustration talking, but I think he was unjustified in his criticism of me" Jefferson said, addressing a multitude of topics before walking off.

Xing's 3rd place a huge boost in the standings.


"A wonderful run, we were hoping to catch up to the two cars in front and go for the win but, we ran out of time to make the move. Third however is a great position and it's amazing that we're on the podium."

Xing moves up to 12th in the current TM Lights standings.

Sakura Motoko brings home a top 5 at Carbondale

Sakura Motoko has brought home her 2nd top 5 finish in three races, which has catapulted her to the 3rd position in points, she was slightly disappointed at the loss of a podium finish due to a pit crew screwup. She will continue onto the next race.

This finish has led so far to both Terra Motorsports drivers finishing their respective races with their cars intact and not getting involved with other people's messes. Woodard will continue on to race here in his First TMMC Independent's Trophy race.

I see Brian Morris finished 24th, 2 laps down. Did he have a problem, or was he just slow?